Note: Javascript is disabled or is not supported by your browser. For this reason, some items on this page will be unavailable. For more information about this message, please visit this page:
About CDC.gov

The sequences of close to 30 microbial genomes have been completed during the past 5 years, and the sequences of more than 100 genomes should be completed in the next 2 to 4 years. Soon, completed microbial genome sequences will represent a collection of >200,000 predicted coding sequences. While analysis of a single genome provides tremendous biological insights on any given organism, comparative analysis of multiple genomes provides substantially more information on the physiology and evolution of microbial species and expands our ability to better assign putative function to predicted coding sequences.

Whole-genome sequencing is transforming the study of pathogenic bacteria. Searches for single virulence genes can now be performed on a genomewide scale by a variety of computer and genetic techniques. These techniques are discussed to provide a pers...

The large size and complexity of the human genome have limited the identification and functional characterization of components of the innate immune system that play a critical role in front-line defense against invading microorganisms. However, adva...

The era of genomics (the study of genes and their function) began a scant dozen years ago with a suggestion by James Watson that the complete DNA sequence of the human genome be determined. Since that time, the human genome project has attracted a gr...

New sequencing technologies have accelerated research on prokaryotic genomes and have made genome sequencing operations outside major genome sequencing centers routine. However, no off-the-shelf solution exists for the combined assembly, gene predict...

Rooting phylogenies is critical for understanding evolution, yet the importance, intricacies and difficulties of rooting are often overlooked. For rooting, polymorphic characters among the group of interest (ingroup) must be compared to those of a re...